If you had to start all over again in this day and age

I started my in home audio journey back in mid 70s with basic Pioneer and Denon Electronics and BIC speakers; quickly moving up to other electronic ie. Harman/Kardon, Tandberg, Nakamichi and Thorns and speakers ie. Klipch, Mission and Vandersteen. By mid 80s I fell in love with the Quad ESL 63s and even though I experimented with a lot of other speakers over the years, the Quads was my main stay speakers for over 20 years - powering them with PSE, Bryston and Krell. Following my work and moving into a considerably smaller living space, I had to sacrifice my Quads and hopes for getting a pr. of Apogee Duetta Sigs. for something considerably smaller.
Now, back in a larger living space with a dedicated audio room, my journey has started over. Following my love for stats and ribbons, I had chance to pick up a pr. of the little Maggie 1.7s and fell in love with their clean open sound. My goal now is to move up to a larger set of Maggies or, If I get the budget a pr. of the Sound Lab 545s or 645s, with an up grade in my CDP and phono cartridge. With hundreds of LPs and CDs, I have no interest in streaming.....Jim

ovinewar

Nice clear diy for streaming on a budget.  Saving it for other opportunities to assist others.  Thanks.  Liked your afterthought!  I have great respect for naysayers IF they have done the work and tried things.  

"We have nothing to fear...but fear itself...except stupid, we should be batshit fearful of stupid."

More Peace, Pin

Pinthift. I too was a musician being a professional trumpet player. I was a bit younger than your son when going professional. Nothing I’ve heard over the years has equaled what I heard in the 15 piece band but that’s ok.
My greatest claim to fame was to sit in when the Fifth Dimension came to town and their player got the stomach bug.
I envy your boy in his journey.

That aside, we opened our first audio salon in 1970. We graduated to 3 stores and I left in 2001 and remained a financial principal until 2008 when the last store closed.
If I didn’t hear 10,000 combinations, I didn’t hear one. Krell, ARC, Wadia Garrad, Thorens, Jensen (an abomination of speakerdom but state of the art then) on and on.

With all that said, I am a babe in the wood with this digital stuff and amazed at the movement in tech it has wrought.

I am not against anything new but I admit I am a slow mover toward anything "new" partly because I exist in the comfort realms of the past while toe stepping into the future. I had to do that as a store owner.
I question everything. I guess because of all the bs spiel I heard as a business owner from vendors, suppliers and audio "critics" from every dimensional plane.

Like a newborn fawn, I do suppose I need to get out in the world to the few remaining stores and listen "all over again".

Thanks pin. I wrestled with buying or building; I can afford the former but enjoy the latter and wasn’t sure streaming was for me. I have well over a 1000 CDs and a top shelf transport and Dac- albeit a dac made for cd output. The RPI opened my eyes to many possibilities and a NAS I just ordered may allow the CDs to be boxed up and stored. I need brain candy and the Raspberry may be just the ticket. BTW.....I haven’t heard batshit since my father passed. Thank you for jogging some memories. 
ARRO, we are akin in our cautious approach to new tech, but Streaming isn’t going away IMHO. Too many youngsters only know this format and they will be the decision makers of the future. 

For my main "audiophile" system, after 5 or 6 years of constant upgrades, for the system I'm "set", won't change a thing...except that we are moving into a home we are having built, with a "bonus room" for my "man cave", so I guess my true answer is that I'm changing the room!

For my wife, in the old house we've had B&W stand mounts driven by a modest Yamaha receiver which shows up as a "speaker" in Spotify.  In our new home we'll just have a pair of KEF LS50W wireless powered speakers, no external amplifier, no speaker wires, no furniture to house the system.